A large sign marks the entrance to the Emerick Sports Complex and park on Sixth Street in Wood River, named after longtime Parks and Recreation director and former mayor, Leroy Emerick. Emerick, who was 92, died Wednesday. less

A large sign marks the entrance to the Emerick Sports Complex and park on Sixth Street in Wood River, named after longtime Parks and Recreation director and former mayor, Leroy Emerick. Emerick, who was 92, ... more

Photo: John Badman | The Telegraph

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Emerick

Emerick

Photo: John Badman | The Telegraph

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‘Engineer of Fun,’ former Wood River Mayor Leroy Emerick, dies at 92

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WOOD RIVER — Hambone.

The Engineer of Fun.

Mr. Wood River.

He was many things to many people, but Edward Leroy Emerick was one thing to them all — beloved.

Emerick, the former Wood River mayor, city councilman and Parks and Recreation director, among other things, died Wednesday. He was 92 years old.

‘Mr. Wood River’

“I just loved Leroy,” Wood River Mayor Cheryl Maguire said Thursday. “Everybody in the city loved him. He was Mr. Wood River.”

Emerick’s legacy is hard to miss in Wood River. The 1944 graduate of East Alton-Wood River High School’s name lives on in the Emerick Sports Complex at the city’s Sixth Street Park, and his contributions to the city include planning and developing the Wood River Aquatic Center, running the “Jiveland” teen center, and organization of the first Oiler Booster Club.

He also implemented the Wood River Khoury League baseball program while serving as president of the Wood River Jaycees, and was a member of the Amateur Softball Association Hall of Fame.

If there is a prevailing memory of Emerick, though, it’s his rendition of “Hambone,” which he would “perform … on moment’s notice,” according to the website for the Oiler Alumni Hall of Fame, of which he was an inaugural inductee in 2009.

“He did that all his life,” lifelong friend and former City Clerk Jean Bruce said. “Everybody would roar and clap. He just started up so many things, and had more fun doing it than the people doing it.”

A community pillar

Leroy and his wife, Helen, remained involved in the community until her passing last October, attending any functions they were able to get to. The couple was married for 73 years and had four children, Donna, Dale, Dana and Dean.

Shortly after her passing, Wood River Parks and Recreation Director Jason Woody said Emerick called him to his house to talk. Emerick handed Woody an envelope with $4,000 in it, money he’d been saving that he wanted to donate to the department.

Woody went back to his office and wrote Emerick a note thanking him for the donation. A short time later, Emerick, having received the letter, called Woody back to his house and handed him another $4,000 donation.

When news was made public of the city deciding not to open the Aquatic Center this summer, Woody got a call. It was Emerick, wanting to know how he could help.

“That just speaks to the way Leroy is,” Woody said. “He cared deeply about the Parks and Rec Department, and what we do.”

In his letter, Woody also expressed his appreciation for their friendship — Emerick, the director of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department for 38 years, was a supporter of Woody from the outset, Woody said, and their meetings at Emerick’s house were numerous.

“I told him in the letter, I hope that someday people can think of me the same way they think of Leroy Emerick,” Woody said.

A lasting legacy

For his impact on the community, Emerick also leaves behind an impact on the individuals that comprise it. Woody said even today visitors to the Roundhouse will tell stories of their memories of Emerick, whether he gave them their first job or just entertained them at Jiveland.

Other stories include the time a window was broken in the Roundhouse because they were playing baseball indoors, to Emerick pulling sleds behind his truck when the weather allowed for it. More than just a public figure, Emerick was also a fun-loving person who that took seriously his responsibility to entertain children as the city’s Parks and Recreation director.

“His wife wrote a book about him for the family. It was called the ‘Engineer of Fun,’” Bruce said. “I think that’s a perfect title for him.”

Hambone. The Engineer of Fun. Mr. Wood River.

One title says it all.

“I always just called him Mayor,” Maguire said. “That’s how I thought of him.”